1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer networks, and more specifically, to receiving content from distributed computer networks. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to receiving location-specific content from distributed computer networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several Internet service providers (ISPs) provide Internet (or background network) access via access points, commonly referred to as “hot-spots,” at public locations such as hotels, airports, restaurants. As Internet users become more and more mobile (with the proliferation of mobile computers and web access over portable personal devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, and the like), one area of growth has been the demand for location-based services when accessing the Internet via localized access points. These access points are locations at which a customer's personal computing device (PCD) connects to and accesses the background network, such as the Internet.
There are two different access configurations by which a PCD connects to the general server network at these access points. In a first access configuration, an access controller of the ISPs limits user access to the Internet or background network until some user/device credentials and/or payment are presented to the access controller. The user/device credential may be tied to a user account that provides paid access to the ISPs services. In a second access configuration, no user credential and/or payment are required and no specific access controller is provided to limit and/or restrict who may access the ISP services.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional logical network connection from a PCD to the Internet, using an access control gateway of an ISP in a first of two access configurations. As shown, ISP 100 has an access control gateway 110 that controls whether the user's PCD 170 is allowed to connect to the Internet 140. Access control gateway 110 is coupled to NDU 110, which allows PCD 170 to establish the connection (wired or wireless) to ISP 100. ISP 100 further comprises a firewall 120 and web server 130. Access control gateway 110 utilizes firewall 120 to controls the level of connectivity provided to PCD 170, by blocking access to Internet 140 until the customer (PCD user) pays for the access and/or agrees to terms of use (perhaps for free access). The execution of firewall and generation of prompts for payment and/or acceptance of terms of use is provided by web server 130.
As illustrated by FIG. 2, when PCD 170 establishes a connection to ISP 100 (via NDU 105) and a web browser is opened on PCD 170, the requested page on the web-browser is re-directed to welcome/login page(s), e.g., gateway pages 1-L 215, hosted on the ISP's web server 130. The welcome/login pages (215) present connection options, payment terms, terms of use, and other information that are displayed on/within the web browser of the PCD 170. The presentation of these pages (215) and subsequent interactions therewith by the user of the PCD is referred to as the “initial connection process”.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, there may be several pages (gateway pages 1-L 115) which the user of the PCD may see on the ISP's web server 130 during the initial connection process. Typically this process completes with a final page on which the user finally accepts usage terms and/or completes the input of payment credentials. After the user completes the input of the credential and/or payment information, the firewall 120 blocking the access to the Internet 140 is removed, and the user is then able to browse Internet pages 245 from the background Internet 140.
The ISP's access control gateway 110, gateway web server 130 and firewall 120 may be locally located relative to the location of the NDU 105 or remotely located. From the PCD 170 and/or PCD user's perspective, the network/Internet access is being provided locally at the location of the NDU 105. Thus, the current state of the art uses the access control gateway 110 to present pages (215) that might have local services for the customer (i.e., PCD user) to utilize. These services may include advertising, local directions, local sites of interest, etc.
As more people utilize local access points to access the greater Internet, there exists an increasing demand for information that is local to the user, such as locations of shops, entertainment, medical facilities/hospitals, and the like, so that the user has quick access to information of the services available in the user's surrounding vicinity. Many ISPs have utilized the access control gateways and particularly the gateway pages during the initial connection process to provide localized content, based primarily on the known location of the particular access point to which the PCD is connected.
The current state of the art in providing localized advertising by the ISP (100) involves gathering information on the customer during the initial connection process. With the information gathered, the gateway web server (130) optionally provides selective (location-specific) advertising, content, or other items of interest to the customer within the gateway pages 1-L 215. The PCD user thus views this content during the initial connection process. This content may be content of a third party which the ISP charges a fee to display on the gateway pages 1-L 215. After this initial connection process, however, the ISP “loses control” of the customer and has no way of presenting further advertising or other items of interest to the customer. Hence, the state of the art is that the ISP has no practical method of offering location specific content on the internet pages 245. Moreover, there is no mechanism to provide local services for locations without access control.
Providing localized content to a user is somewhat limited to the information received from the user during the initial connection process and/or to preset information programmed for presentation on the gateway pages (215) provided when accessing the ISP by pre-designated NDUs 105. In addition to these described limitations with the conventional implementations, several other limitations exist. For example, there are many different ISPs that provide access control, and the access controllers of these different ISPs are typically all different in their functionality. This variation across ISPs proves to be distracting to a user who may want to be provided local services, but may find that the access to such local services is unavailable with certain ISPs. Additionally, the type of information provided across the ISPs may be very different and/or the access mechanisms for such local information may function very differently with other ISPs. Moreover, there is no known conventional mechanism for providing these local services at gateway sites to which access is not controlled by an access control gateway 110 having a known geographic location.